10 Songs That Don't Mean What You Think

1. Wake Me Up When September Ends (Green Day)

What You Think It Means: Here come Green Day and their anti-war sentiments. 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' is often considered a straight-up pacifist rant that acts as part of the 'American Idiot' album's overarching complaints about North American aggression. Billie Joe Armstrong and pals don't like war.

What It's Actually About: Maybe they don't, but that's not what the song was intended to be about.

Upon closer inspection, it's easy to see that Armstrong's lyrics are more in-step with childhood innocence lost than bombs falling. Lines like, "Twenty years has gone so fast" and, " The innocent can never last" are autobiographical and examine the fact that the singer's father died of cancer when he was only a child.

Armstrong Sr passed on 1 September 1982, hence the song's use of that month in the title. It wasn't until the music video released that people started to link it to war; at the start of the vid, lovers bemoan the Iraq war's impact on their relationship. That sits neatly with the tune's topical look at lost innocence.

What other songs do you know of with different meanings to what most people think? Let us know down in the comments!